Studies on the mechanism of fatty acid synthesis. XI. The product of the reaction and the role of sulfhydryl groups in the synthesis of fatty acids.

Recent communications from this laboratory (1, 2) have described the preparation and properties of a highly purified enzyme fraction from avian liver which catalyzes the synthesis of long chain fatty acids from acetyl coenzyme A (CoA) and malony-Coh in the presence of reduced triphosphopyridine nucleotide (TPNH). The major component of the synthesized fatty acids formed from acetyl-Coa and malonyl-CoA has been shown to be palmitic acid (1, 3). Equation 1 shows the stoichiometry of the synthetic reactions involved in the formation of palmitic acid (I, 4).